Quotation of the Week: On Lent and Workshops

It's the third week of Lent...which is nearly half over. And my Lenten vows have taken quite a beating. Well, allow me to say that the tech-related fasting is going much better than the food-related one....

But the Lenten quotations keep coming, and after I shared my bulging Quotation Journal at the Pine Valley Bible Conference Center's Spring Women's Retreat where I spoke on Saturday in workshops on Journaling in the morning and on Blogging in the afternoon, I find more value than ever in my decade-long collecting of the written words of others.

The Journaling Workshop was very well-attended; the small room was filled, with women standing in the back when the seating ran out. There had to be about thirty women there which is very nicely attended considering it's my first conference speaking gig since I was the main speaker at Lake Murray's Women Retreat in 2006 when I spoke on contemplative prayer and practice. My name will get out more and more as I speak more, too. :)

Both workshops are available here on my blog on the pages under my header: On Blogging and On Journaling, if you'd like to read them. :)

I asked many people to pray for me before I spoke, and I felt His Presence with me as I rarely had to consult my notes; I just shared my journaling practices and offered some assistance, and we journaled together using some freewriting prompts, a method I learned from Brave Writer. So thanks be to God for a successful day of workshops!

It was also really fun that several women from Lake Murray were helping out at the Women's Conference, so Joy was helping to sell the copies on the book table of The Book of Common Prayer 2011 that I helped to edit; Patty was helping me at my Journaling Workshop, and my doctor's wife, Marcia, who was leading a workshop on women's health in the afternoon, also joined my morning Journaling Workshop. What blessings!!

My daughter's boss at the Bible Camp told her that a good number of women mentioned the Journaling Workshop when they shared what God was saying to them at the close of the retreat, and I've been asked to offer the Journaling Workshop again in May at the Mother-Daughter Conference.

So tonight I pull out my trusty Quotation Journal which I started in August of 2001, just before moving to Pine Valley, and I found another quotation on Lent to keep us (and especially ME) focused on the reason we sacrifice and fast during this time of year:

"It [penance] does not mean sacrifice and self-denial in the first place, but a 'change of heart,' a victory over sin and a striving for holiness."

--Fr. Francis X. Weiser, SJ

So as we continue in this Lenten season, may our hearts change as we seek the Face of our Saviour each and every day, striving to become like Him through His grace and strength, and definitely for His glory, not our own.

And as I recover from speaking two weekends in a row, I pray for a quiet week ahead with less stress so that I can focus all the more easily on my Lord and Saviour so that He can change my hard heart this Lenten season.

Walking this Lenten Journey with you,